Organized religions nearly always seem to go off the rails at some point and produce extremist factions. It seems to be a concomitant, almost, of the mindset that goes in for organized religious practice in the first place. As Chainsaw wisely noted, this phenomenon is certainly not exclusive to Muslims--even religions that we tend to associate with very peaceful practice such as Hinduism and Buddhism have outbreaks of hysterical mania among their more fanatically-minded followers. I see no way of completely erasing this tendency as long as organized religions of any stripe exist. And I see no chance of their just withering away entirely, no matter how many followers some of them seem to be losing.
What angers me as much about these latest UK attacks--apart, of course, from rage at the stupid and wanton destruction for an idiotic 'cause'--is that they're playing so neatly into Trump's hands at this point. He'll point to them and say "See? I told you my travel ban was right all along"; and with the ban coming up before a majority conservative Supreme Court very soon, these attacks might just turn the decision in that rat bastard's favor. I hope, hope, hope I'm wrong about this, but I have no real feeling that I am.
